Blogs are the new websites

Yes, your website can be a blog!

New software such as Movabletype and Typepad are progressively making their blog software look more and more like websites.

For example, they are making it easier to add (with a little help) special navigational features such as "About", "Home", "Specials" and any other menus that you wish.

Of course, the main part of your website will then be blogging. But, for updating your clients and visitors about your latest activity, even on a daily basis, this could be the route to take.

It also adds a slightly less formal aspect to your website, where you appear to be conversing or chatting with your "visitors".

You can even activate the comments section, and let people drop in their views, questions and suggestions.

This actually means that you don't have to depend on your designer 24/7 to update some aspects of your website - specifically your latest activities. You can manage parts of your content yourself.

To Flickr or to Youtube

There are many professionally designed methods to put photos and videos onto your main website. This is the recommended route if you want your website to look serious.

But, there is no reason why you cannot put in photos and videos onto your blog, using the many free or low-priced website sources.

The most popular, and the most user friendly are Flickr and Youtube.

Part of the charm of Flickr and Youtube is that they act like a type of a blog. Some people opt for purely a Flickr or Youtube presence, uploading their videos and photo and posting them with comments, to maintain a photo or video journal.

You can connect to your Flickr and Youtube posts by simply having a link on your blog, or by actually downloading a video onto your blog posting. Unfortunately, you can upload only from your Youtube account directly to your blog. Photos need to be uploaded from your files (from your hard drive, or other file sources, not from Flickr), or just linked to from a Flickr page.

Movable Type, Wordpress allow a seamless website/blog look

Older blog software were limited in their function. Their primary purpose was to let you post your blog articles on regular intervals, have your readers comment on them and provide an easy way for them to find older posts (usually by date or by category).

Many individuals and companies have been adding blogs to their main websites for a while now. This gives their customers and readers a place to find a variety of updated, current information, and even interact with the website besides just sending emails.

What is happening now is the reverse. Many bloggers are finding that they want to add a website-like appearance to their blogs.

For example, they may wish to sell some products (often books or artwork), they may want to add an extensive "Abouts" page, or a section for scheduled events , and a special menu for their links (to other blogs and other sites), an articles section if they also write for other journals or online sites, and of course the requisite "Contacts" page.

The site then seamlessly functions both as a website, and as a regularly updated blog.

Popular blogging software such as Movable Type and Wordpress have come up with just this version of web+blog.

Here are some examples of websites and blogs that combined together to provide the functions of both.

* Serious Eats very successfully merges both the functions of a blog and that of a content-driven website.

Regular bloggers post daily on a number of topics, and readers can interact with comments, and even participate by asking questions and making entries in the "Talk" forum*.

Besides blog posts, there are also columns which provide article-style posting.

* The Torontoist website posts daily information about Toronto. It has categorized its topics in its menu on top of the page, as well as adding a more conventional website menu including "about", an interesting "schedules" menu to know when the various topics will be posted, and a "staff" link with emails and contacts also added.

The Torontoist is part of a large, urban-based network of websites/blogs also found in New York, Vancouver and London, England.

* Even big organizations and institutions are using the Movable Type and Wordpress web and blog combination to greater effect, allowing for regular updates of news and events, some with commenting possibilities, and others with blog-like features for sharing and emailing these posts.

Almost everyone is now used to some kind of interactivity on websites. They also expect regular updates on information on events, specials (sales, items), schedules and other news that regularly change.

I have written briefly about this in another post.

*A forum is an online place where members login to discuss issues of similar interest. There are thousands of forums out there from discussing the latest reality TV episodes to intricate mathematical questions. Many websites are now including forums as well as blogs.

Excerpts from article: "The Whys and Hows of Adding a Blog to Your Website"

Here is a section from my article "The Whys and Hows of Adding a Blog to Your Website."

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The Whys and Hows of Adding a Blog to Your Website.

A. WHY ARE BLOGS IMPORTANT?

1. Blogs personalize your website

There is the "About" section with the biography, and the "Gallery of Photos" section with photos to put a face to the website contributors, but there is no direct interaction with the reader with these one-off posts. A blog, with repeated entries, is about giving the point-of-view of the webmaster, allowing us to know him better than what his website says.

Example: The Times online has a blog section with several writers (including the featured web writers) who give their own perspectives and opinions on current news.

2. Blogs update visitors

A static website, with irregular updates (usually on services, which don't change that much) cannot give a well-rounded picture of the goals and plans of the website. A good blog will discuss new ideas before they are implemented, and explain current services to give its visitors the workings behind the idea.

Example: The Art Gallery of Ontario has a blog section which focuses on the renovation, comments on gallery projects, and other related topics. This kind of information would be hard to document on the regular website.

3. Blogs provide information

Much better than links, blogs can be a great resource for like-minded websites, projects, communities and individuals. A well-archived blog with easily classified topics can be a wealth of information

Example: bbrooks fine flowers has a blog to give seasonal and other information about flowers. The information doesn't necessarily have to be about the flowers in their store.

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Blogs and Websites

Several blog software are providing possibilities to seamlessly customizing your blog with your website. Typepad is probably the most versatile, but you have to pay to download the software. You can start a pre-designed blog with Wordpress and pay for extra services, including customizing your blog. So far, I think Movable Type is the most versatile for the small "personal" type website. Blogger is pretty good and simple, but you need to go into some complicated html and css coding to get some functions like menus running.

Bloggers, Awards, and the Main Stream Media

Bloggers' awards are an important way to validate information available on the internet. But that begs the question. Are blogs the best way to get information?

Yesterday's TVO (TVOntario) guest Andrew Keen doesn't seem to think so. His point is that professional media or Main Stream Media (MSM), like newspapers and television, spend time and research in order to produce their information. Blogs are the product of amateurs and not to be really trusted, is his conclusion.

But, it is interesting that some of the most important stories on the MSM were broken by bloggers. And one of the the US' most unlikely candidates, Ron Paul, is making headways because of the internet.

The 2007 Weblog Awards have given out their prizes according to categories. This shows you just how varied bloggers are, and that they can't really be put in a convenient niche of "amateurs". A gossip blog hardly rates the same as a technology blog.

There is a tendency, I agree, for blogs to be pop-culture oriented. There is no "Arts Blog" category in the Weblog Awards, and the Music Blogs finalists are all pop or rock. But, that just happens to be the choices that the Weblog Awards committee chose. Of course all those blogs are out there, but they now appear on a third tier - MSM, MSB (Main Stream Bloggers) and The Rest. But, unlike CBC or TVO, you don't have to wait for the media channel to bring you your favorite story, you can find them just as well yourself.

Still, like my previous post, video didn't kill radio, and blogs aren't going to replace MSM too soon. They just provide the choice and alternate interaction that makes news, hobbies, businesses, and any subject that you fancy, more interesting.

Welcome!

Welcome to Kidist Designs' Blog. Here, I will periodically post material on website design, the latest news about websites, what's going on with blogging, and any other information that might help you in designing the best possible website.

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